The present invention broadly relates to a new and improved construction of an apparatus for exchanging and charging of energy storage device of transport vehicles and which contains an exchange position for the transport vehicle, a displacement device for the energy storage devices and a charging station having a plurality of deposit positions for the energy storages.
Apparatuses for the exchange of energy storage devices are known to the art in different constructional embodiments, for instance, from German Patent No. 2,410,102, published Sept. 4, 1975 for the exchange of accumulator batteries. With this prior art apparatus the battery-propelled transport vehicle is located along an associated or individual travel track or path in an exchange position. Adjacent the travel track there are arranged in a semi-circle a plurality of battery deposit and charging positions. At the center of these battery deposit and charging positions there is located an exchange carriage which can be aligned both with the transport vehicle and also with the charging positions and can be rotated by a rotary disk or turntable about an axis. A transport device is located upon the exchange carriage and serves to remove batteries out of the transport vehicle and after pivoting and aligning the exchange carriage with a predetermined charging station transfers these batteries to the charging station. The described apparatus requires a relatively large amount of space and during the exchange operation of the batteries from the transport vehicle into the charging station there are required a number of aligning, positioning and transport operations. Additionally, at each side of the travel track and the transport vehicle there is required an appropriate battery exchange and charging device, since the re-charged or re-loaded battery is inserted from one side into the transport vehicle, and thus, the discharged battery is ejected at the other side of the transport vehicle and placed upon the exchange carriage. This arrangement is comparatively expensive and owing to the different drives and movement operations it is relatively prone to disturbance. The large space requirement also necessitates considerable investment costs.
In the German Published Patent No. 2,444,711, published Apr. 1, 1976 there is described a battery exchange apparatus in which the battery boxes for the charging of the batteries are arranged in rows extending parallel to the travel track. Between the battery boxes and the travel track or, as the case may be, the transport vehicle there is located a travelling battery exchange apparatus by means of which the batteries can be removed from the transport vehicle and introduced into the battery boxes Notwithstanding the one-sided servicing of the transport vehicle which is possible with this construction, a relatively large number of manipulations are required and the battery exchange apparatus must be aligned and accurately positioned both with respect to the transport vehicle and also the battery boxes. Since the battery exchange apparatus must travel to a number of stations the susceptibility to disturbances is increased.